It has been demonstrated that for many types of buildings it is desirable to have wall sections formed of a brick exterior with a lining of tiles affixed to the bricks. Such wall sections have been shown in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,102,664. It has also been shown that in many instances it is desirable to make preformed wall sections. When constructing wall sections of bricks with a tile lining by hand, however, the procedure is very time consuming and complicated whether for preformed wall sections or those constructed in the field, and sometimes not economically practical.
According to the present invention, preformed wall sections having exteriors of brick, block, or the like with a lining of tile or the like are economically constructed automatically with a minimum of labor and wasted effort, yet the wall sections constructed thereby are of high quality and will remain intact even over extended periods of use. According to a preferred method of the present invention a preformed brick wall panel is disposed in a generally horizontal plane, a lining panel composed of individual tile members is assembled, proper spacings are introduced between the tiles, columns of mortar are disposed along the upper face of the horizontally disposed wall panel, and the lining panel members are transferred in groups or en masse to a position over the wall panel, and are then firmly pressed into engagement with the mortar columns. The mortar columns are preferably arranged so that when a wall section containing the same is in use, the columns will run vertically.
Exemplary apparatus according to the present invention may include vacuum grippers for transferring of the lining panel to position over the wall panel, flatbed cars movable on tracks for locating the wall panels in proper position, automatic means for applying all mortar columns simultaneously onto a wall panel upper face, and spacing means for introducing a predetermined space between various tiles of lining panel including a plurality of sets of plural levers interconnected to form a scissors-like device. Also, the vacuum grippers can be so constructed that they introduce the predetermined spacing between the tiles after lifting thereof from a horizontal surface.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method--and improved apparatus for accomplishing the method--for constructing preformed wall sections. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention and from the appended claims.